Intensive exercise may be bad for your lungs

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Respiratory pandemics set off several new trends

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"It is believed that in the winter there is nothing like sports and exercise  to improve your health and breathing.. yet this advice may be wrong as it is recently being proven that intensive exercise may be bad for your lungs; many top Oylympic athletes' health statistics are showing there is no longer any doubt that an alarming proportion of athletes with rigorous cold-air training end up having problems with their breathing.."  Science Daily.

With the winter Olympics in Vancouver Canada merging with many countries worldwide the potential for a problem is already becoming a concern as the pandemic H1N1 influenza surges with the onset of a cold winter.  The nations of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union appear particularly vulnerable to a new black lung virus surfacing in the Ukraine, according to their government statistics, 1.5 million of its 46 million people have had diagnoses of the new flu and related respiratory sicknesses since the start of the outbreak.  In scientific studies conducted by the Olympic Committee of Colorado (USA) were able to show that over a quarter of the athletes on the American team suffered from spasmodic contractions of the bronchi (bronchospasms) and these respiratory problems appeared more among cross-country skiers.

Physical activity is more likely to cause asthmatic illnesses in winter because air temperature plays a crucial role.  Cold air is also saturated with vapor therefore major water and heat loss occurs through the heavier breathing required by the athlete's activity.  In a temperate environment of 27° Celsius the air breathed by an athlete undergoing intensive training is gently warmed as it enters the airways but when ice-cold air is breathed in the air inhaled (due to increased concentration of ionic components in the fluids of the airway mucosa) a mediator release occurs from certain cells in the respiratory tract resulting in airway inflammation.

Sporting a designer face mask in public that covers the nose and mouth may be one possible measure that may also become a new feature in our modern society.  Surgical quality masks are designed to protect against airborne contaminants where hand washing only deters from germs and from surfaces that were touched.  In the case of cold air hindering breathing, a health mask can be altered accordingly whereas air exhaled at a temperature of 37°C enters a hollow metal grid where it can be momentarily encapsulated which will then help raise the temperature of the air breathed in thereby relieving the possible damage from the cold air and coinciding vulnerability from foreign contagious agents.

Other solutions may include anti-viral vaccinations supplemented with an inclusive anti-inflammatory prophylactic drug treatment (steroid-based remedies often given to asthmatics) whereas the steroid may effectively block the bronchial constriction and the vaccine may prevent the onset of severe respiratory flu symptoms. 

Virologists investigating transmission say beware of cross-country skiing, the cold dry weather conditions pull moisture out of droplets released by coughs and sneezes which allows the virus to linger in the air making viral contamination worse in the winter.  

The lung experts warn against undertaking winter endurance training as nasal passages dry out making transmission more likely.  Vulnerable lungs are subject to viral related respiratory infections triggered by the H1N1 swine flu virus or other lung respiratory type of illnesses like the one that is starting to recently surface in Europe.

~Tomitheos reporting from Toronto